Do I need a Spiritual Coach?

Day 14

Readings Psalms 14, 44, 74, 104, 134 Proverbs 14, Readings from Thomas Merton, "A Contemplative Prayer"

¹ Praise the LORD, O my soul.
O LORD my God, you are very great;
you are clothed with splendor and majesty.

² He wraps himself in light as with a garment;
he stretches out the heavens like a tent

This reminds me of the song, “How Great is our God” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjxPG_mRHDs. It has been sung in Bailey’s room so much, its one of her favorite songs at bedtime, “Daddy sing How great to me.” It melts me. Bailey has made me cry more than everything else in life together. I love being a daddy that teaches his kids about how great our God is. I love to raise my hands in the air with Bailey having her hands up too, praising God in church. She has been doing that since before she walked. May she and Micah be totally passionate and obedient lovers of Jesus. There would be no greater joy in my life.

I beg you Lord, please keep me alive so that I can keep teaching them who you are and grow together with them. I don’t need riches, I don’t need fame but I long to live a long life with my family serving you.

Proverbs 14 – “The wisdom of the prudent is to give thought to their way”. I love that, success in life requires meditative evaluation. It requires the Sabbath, it requires alone time with God. “There is a way that seems right to a man but in the end it leads to death.” This verse has been in my mind since college and is so true.

²¹ He who despises his neighbor sins,
but blessed is he who is kind to the needy.

How is my neighbor? There is something so special about caring for your neighbors. We really care for Michael, Al Zaphar, Barbara and Mikum’s family. Open the floodgates of heaven to them, protect them and bring us all into a great community. But it blesses God when we make all the needy our neighbors, when we see a need and fill it.

³¹ He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker,
but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.

Again, God’s heart for the poor and needy is lifted in proverbs.

Bailey just woke up, sat on my lap, heard the song I mentioned above on my laptop and said, “I love praising Jesus”. Your Spirit oh God is in her, I see her growing, changing and becoming a loving servant for you.

Thomas Merton (1915-1968) Excerpts From Contemplative Prayer

Can

We now have many getting "life coaches", experts that can help us direct our life affairs to be successful. But do we need a spiritual coach?

“Most people have to learn how to meditate. But we should not expect to find magical methods, systems which will make all difficulties and obstacles dissolve into thin air. We should not however, judge the value of our meditation by “How we feel.” A hard and apparently fruitless meditation may in fact be much more valuable than one that easy, happy, enlightened and apparently a big success”

A spiritual director (coach, mentor) may not be necessary for the ordinary Christian life but it is a “moral necessity for anyone who is trying to deepen his or her life of prayer”.

The spiritual coach or director “is someone who is capable of guiding the beginner in the ways of prayer and detecting any sign of misguided zeal and wrong-headed effort. “

“Many people who have a few natural gifts and a little ingenuity tend to imagine that they can quite easily learn, by their own cleverness, to master the methods – one might say the “Tricks” – of the spiritual life.”

“The only trouble is that in the spiritual life, there are no tricks and no shortcuts.” There is so much in this devotional by Merton, deep spirituality is not easily attained in a short time, it takes a lot of humility to learn from those ahead of us. It takes honest obedience to their help. Maybe you should consider getting a spiritual coach, I’m praying for one too!